24. Joash of Abiezer.
1894 184 If we could only make up our minds to follow the opinions of those around us in regard to matters of religion, what trouble it would prevent, to be sure! But then it might in possible cases lead us, as it led Joash, into building an altar to Baal, and worshipping a god with an ass' head and a fiend's heart. That would be hardly a safe principle then. Let us try again:
Suppose the governmental ruler of the country — king, kaiser, president or parliament — would appoint a national religion and all submit, how much inconvenience that would save! If all would only submit, there would be no schisms, no contentions nor persecutions, no stakes nor racks nor torture-boots, nor other appliances of that sort, with which men have sought to modify the religious convictions of their neighbours. We should not require these Wycliffes and Luthers either. We could even — in a way — get on without such men as Paul and his coadjutors.
Yet somehow when this method has been tried, it has not turned out to be such a complete success as might have been expected. Some rulers take to promulgating such very peculiar doctrines — Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Fetishism even, — and sometimes a new ruler, by "divine right" or "infallible," comes forth and upsets all that his divine right and infallible predecessor taught, without even giving us the little time to turn round that decency requires to prevent an appearance of inconsistency. Sometimes even the same ruler will change about in such a most inconvenient and embarrassing way that one can hardly keep pace with him; and that for reasons, too, which do not always seem adequate to the ordinary mind. John III. of Sweden would change his religion when he wanted a new wife; Henry VIII. of England when he wanted to get rid of an old one. Even Henry of Navarre would travel from Geneva to Rome in his creeds when he thought public policy required it. To be sure, if one be not particular, such difficulties are not insurmountable. Fuller says that when the notable Symon Symonds was "first a papist [under Henry VIII.], then a protestant [under Edward VI.], then a papist again [in Mary's reign], then a protestant again [in Elizabeth's] — when he was taunted with lack of principle, he replied that it was not so; for he always kept to his principle, which was to retain his own position secure and undisturbed.
Joash evidently reasoned in this way. He had, as was customary in his time and neighbourhood, an altar to Baal on his estate. It was fashionable and general, and saved him from being the object of invidious comparisons on the part of his neighbours; but there is nothing to show that he had the slightest belief in Baal or any other god. He was a latitudinarian, and, being surrounded by bigots, he for the sake of ease fell in with their methods. Why should he trouble himself and subject himself to persecutions simply to protest against a false system that may after all have some elements of truth in it? He would be only one against the multitude.
His son Gideon also was only one; but he broke down the idolatrous altar and destroyed the whole system one night in a most effective way; and when the people saw the ruins next day, there was considerable excitement. All the bigots were there with that deliberate and deadly animosity which still characterizes their descendants. They said to Joash, "Bring out thy son that he may die"; and they meant it too. But the old man seems to have loved his son passing well, and moreover found him very useful about the farm, so that he views matters in a different light, though doubtless extremely annoyed about the altar, or rather the commotion which has been caused. He replies with cynical bluntness to the effect that, if his son had done Baal any injury and if Baal be a god, let him avenge it himself. He, Joash, would not; and if any of them touched his son, it would be the worse for them. "Let Baal plead for himself," he roughly concludes. He was evidently a man of such position and with such assistance at his command as to be able to overawe the bigots; and the affair passed off for the time. It was probably from this passage that the story of the boy Abram's smashing his father's idols found its way into the Talmud, for some of the circumstances are very similar.
The Latitudinarian is very "good natured" and honest (negatively); he is a much more agreeable neighbour than the bigot at any time. Occasionally he is a Nothingarian and does not profess to care anything for or against any phase of religion, like Gallio or Meroz; and occasionally he is an Everythingarian — generally an Arian of some sort, whether avowed or not, in these times; and then he can see so much to be said for all sides of a question, that like Chunder Sen he can construct a brand new religion from selected parts of all the others; or still more probably, like Reuben he will sit on the fence with "heart searching" introspection, and leave the others to do the fighting. Why should he fight? He sees with calm and comprehensive sight that Black is not all Black, nor White so very White. Thus he sits impartially until the contending parties decide which theory is by survival the fittest for popular acceptance, when he gets down quietly and joins the victorious party; but he maintains his reputation for sagacity and impartiality by representing their opponents' side of the contention in the role of a "candid friend." He has often a large and capacious intellect and makes an excellent judge to sum up the evidence pro and con, like Francis Bacon: but a bribe or a threat may lead him, as it led Bacon, to pervert judgment. He is not deliberately wicked, for he neither hates nor loves any one strongly enough for that; yet his selfishness and weakness may wreck the best cause and betray his dearest friend, as Bacon's led Essex to the scaffold. He lacks one thing needful; he is heartless, and consequently weak of purpose and afraid to be in a minority: like those lukewarm Laodiceans who, because they were neither cold nor hot, were cast out of the mouth of One Who had stood alone thorn-crowned and ridiculed against the whole world.